_{Thumbnail photo courtesy of Del Norte Unified School District}

Del Norte Unified School District is still grappling with a budget deficit, but the district’s current financial picture has improved over last year, its assistant superintendent of business said.

DNUSD’s net budget shortfall heading into the 2026-27 fiscal year is $3.78 million compared to the $4.6 million deficit it was dealing with last year, Greg Bowen told trustees on Thursday.

At a public hearing roughly three weeks after California Gov. Gavin Newsom released his revised budget, Bowen credited a 4.31% cost of living adjustment, or “super COLA” and  a proposal to allocate additional funding for special education for the improvements. But Bowen said district officials are “cautious about what the future holds.”

“We’ve got work to do as revenue is having a hard time keeping up with overall expenditures statewide and is impacting us locally as well,” he said.

Local impacts include a decline in enrollment, which will lead to a decrease in per-pupil funding via the state’s Local Control Funding Formula. According to Bowen, the number of students attending Del Norte schools has been declining over the past five years by an average of 1.75% — roughly 50 to 60 students each year. 

That equals to about a $750,000 decrease in funding each year. However, because the state funds school districts on a three-year average, DNUSD’s allocation is based on a larger average daily attendance quota, Bowen told trustees.

California is also set to experience a change in leadership this year, which will impact funding to K12 education, Bowen said. Rising utilities, workers’ compensation, property and liability insurance and legal costs also continue to increase. Bowen said they’re accounted for in the budget.

“We are cautious about what the future holds,” he said, adding that DNUSD did not issue staff layoffs this year. “We’re going to continue with our hiring frost next year. As we have vacancies, at a cabinet level, we’re looking at the funding source (to) make sure it is stable. We’re looking at programs and services to make sure they’re still valuable.”

Del Norte Unified School District is expected to receive $46 million in Local Control Funding Formula dollars, $15 million in state grants, $4.2 million in federal funding and $9.5 million in local revenue. 

According to Bowen, the additional state dollars includes $967,000 in additional special education funding — the largest single investment in special education in history. DNUSD also expects an additional $1.8 million from a state flexible block grant, which allows DNUSD to use as it sees fit.

Expenditures, however, are expected to increase by 8% from the previous year. Bowen said 2026-27’s projected expenditures will be about $78 million, which is up from $75 million in 2025-26. 

“Salaries and benefits is the bulk of our overall expenditures as we’re in the people business,” Bowen said. “And then we also look at operational costs — fuel, utilities, transportation. All those costs are rising uncontrollably, so we have to factor in what those increases are going to look like next year and put it down in the budget as well.”

Before Bowen’s budget presentation, Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services Tom Kissinger presented the 2026-27 Local Control Accountability Plan. This plan outlines how the district will use the roughly $7.5 million in additional state dollars it receives for foster and homeless youth, socio-economically disadvantaged youth and English language learners. 

The total budgeted amount for the 2026-27 LCAP is about $10.1 million, according to Kissinger’s report.

Some of the proposed expenditures outlined in the LCAP include roughly $2.6 million to maintain the staff needed to keep grade-level combination classes and current class sizes status quo for the 2026-27 year. 

The LCAP also calls for allocating $1.25 million in LCFF dollars to fund an English learner program specialist, six English learner assistants and about 4 staff members.

During her report on Thursday, Del Norte Teacher Association President Amber Tiedeken-Cron said the 4% COLA helps since costs are increasing across the board. But one concern she said she hoped will be addressed with district leaders on June 21 is increases to health insurance.

“The district, classified management, we’ve all been meeting in the health committee to look at, are there other options? Are we missing something? Is there some cheaper healthcare option for everybody out there?” Tiedeken-Cron said.

Tiedeken-Cron said certificated staff members are expecting another increase in health insurance costs in October.

“We want to be able to focus on educating students, not on where can I get extra hours or what other job can I pickup to make up for that difference in that health insurance increase,” she said.

Board President Charlaine Mazzei, who, along with her Trustee Area 5 colleague Michael Greer host regular budget workshops, said she’s concerned about the deficit, though it’s “going in the right direction.”

“That’s going to have to be something that comes up with negotiations,” she said. “Even with the super COLA — we got more money — we’re still in a deficit situation, so how are we going to address that?”

The Del Norte County Unified School District Board of Trustees will vote on the finalized budget and LCAP on June 25. According to Bowen, if the finalized state budget contains significant changes from the May revise, DNUSD has 45 days to revise its own budget.

“If the state were to come back and say, ‘You know what, our COLA dropped 2%,’ we have an opportunity to make an adjustment with the August revise.”